Phuket Prospect: Kendall Stewart on punk show mosh pits, Sarah Kaufman & Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA

Ringkasan

Kendall Stewart is a 29-year-old mixed martial artist hailing from Canada living in Phuket.

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download the allstar app make your picks for UFC fights challenge your friends level up and win prizes Link in description get it now yo what's going on my name is Kendall I'm from Victoria British Columbia and Canada um I am 29 years old and I am an amateur MMA fighter I'm training out of bangau Muay and MMA right now um as a kid I was pretty sassy um I wanted to wear like a new outfit for every day of the week uh my mom allowed me to dye my hair blue when I was 7 years old and apparently um she got in trouble with a lot of the other mothers because you know it's probably cuz I was too cool and all the other kids were just not as cool so yeah I was pretty sassy I've always been pretty sassy just sassy I was a sassy child I wanted to be a pop star yeah yeah when I was seven I was like determined to be Britney Spears um yeah so look how that turned out uh it went until until I realized I was toned deaf probably yeah so I would say it went until maybe I was like 10 years old and then I started then I started thinking realistically I started growing up you know my brain was developing more and I realized if I can't sing I'm not going to be a pop star so I better better choose something else no I would say I was pretty shy like I would say that um I would try to avoid confrontation um but one thing when I got into my teen years is I was really into going into punk shows like local punk shows and metal shows and stuff like that and I loved moshing so that was like kind of that might have been an Avenue into um you know aggressively punching people in the face uh because I was kind of just like swinging my arms at him you know we were pushing each other and stuff and I really enjoyed that think so yeah yeah it was my first taste of violence there was one time I was at this like really really local show and it was only me and one other guy moshing so it was practically like we were just fighting each other and I think I really enjoyed that I know when um mosh pits get bigger they're like more squished and there's less fighting involved so I would specifically go to those local shows so that I could have more space and more freedom to to you know I mean I I I wouldn't be hurting them but we'd be pushing each other around I'm not sure where like there's probably other ways or other reasons that I became aggressive and I don't really consider myself to be that I only really consider myself to be aggressive at times that I want to be aggressive I wouldn't consider myself an aggressive person actually to be honest I'm pretty easygoing well um so after high school I decided that I didn't want to be a lazy piece of [ __ ] anymore so I started started exercising I just started with uh lifting weights at the gym and it was good um but I got bored after a while but I I was still really into like being fit and healthy so I thought okay I got to pick a sport and um I thought okay what's like the ultimate sport right it's like you can beat someone in tennis you can beat someone in basketball but until you actually get into a fist fight with someone do you actually know who the real winner is so I thought okay that's the perfect Avenue I also don't like group like I'm not a big like group sport person so this is a good individual Sport and this was also at the same time that Ronda Rousey was coming up so I was like oh [ __ ] I want to be her blah blah blah so yeah it just kind of worked out um so I started when I was 21 I started mainly with jiu-jitsu um which is surprising cuz I wanted to actually get into striking first but Jiu-Jitsu was the way cuz I just ended up loving it and being slightly good at it in the beginning um and then yeah I just kept training um you know I would say like I would say i' I've got like seven years of training just because there have been things that have gotten in the way injuries infections all that nonsense moving and stuff like that so but um yeah 21 was the start for me and honestly I'm rather it that way because if I were have started earlier I probably or like my mom I'm remember my mom pushing me to do all these different sports and I just refuse all the time so it's like it's better this way cuz I made my own decision right I decided that this is what I wanted to do and now you know um hopefully it's not too late but we'll see uh my first fight was in 2018 and it was an amateur kickboxing fight and um I lost that because um so as soon as the round started started I just like I just wanted to knock her out so badly so all my technique went out the window not to say that I really had any technique at the time but the only thing I was throwing was my left hand so that didn't really work out to my benefit and then uh my second fight was my amateur my first amateur MMA fight which was through Battlefield in Vancouver um and that one I also lost a split decision um that one was definitely a lot more even and I felt like I felt like I was um you know a bit better with my technique I was using my wrestling um but I just didn't get the win I guess I wasn't aggressive enough that's what they said anyway um so yeah it started pretty rough and um then Co happened and I wasn't allowed to fight for a little bit um and then I came here and I did nine mu fights successfully so when I first came to bangau I had the intention of doing MMA um but you know I got kind of excited because you can do Muay Thai um if you want you could fight Muay Thai every month and so I knew that my striking was was kind of here in comparison to my Jiu-Jitsu which was about here so I thought okay why what better way to get comfortable with striking than going and fighting repeatedly you know once a month um and it did help me uh I won seven lost one and and drawed one so I think I think that worked out for me to be honest I think it's still like my striking is still here and my jiujitsu is still here I think it's just like this as opposed to here but um I do feel more comfortable just like in competition setting now which is good yeah my last fight was my was an amateur MMA fight um it was a couple of weeks ago here in puket uh it worked out quite well for me I did want to do some striking because I was fighting a kickboxer but um she hit me with a really good hook and so I uh decided to use my wrestling and thankfully I was able to take her down and get a rear naked choke within the first uh minute and 10 seconds I think it was of the first round so I would say my most dominant win for sure I've gotten some um like tko's like body tko's in in Muay Thai but um I don't know there's something special about getting a rear naked choke like that especially that early on in the round so I'm pretty I'm pretty happy with it it really sucked the the one good thing is that um for me those losses you know it wasn't as if I was completely losing all the time cuz I was always actively competing in Jiu-Jitsu and I was very successful there um to be honest if I was just losing everything I'm not saying I would would quit but I'm saying it would be very hard for me to like I need I need some I need some sort of some sort of indicator that like I'm going in in the right progression or the right path because you know I understand that it's always like this right especially in martial arts um but I need some indicator of that I'm like successful so it did suck losing those two fights U my second MMA fight honestly I believe that I had won but but it's okay and I mean I learn I learn from those mistakes I learned from winning too so honestly obviously I would have much rather won but I learned and uh and yeah I mean I'm just happy I went out there and and tried my best and obviously and I I yeah I really did learn from them because it's like you need to know especially with my first kickboxing fight like I had no idea how I was going to react and honestly I'm glad I reacted in a way where I wasn't retreating I was constantly going forward and just throwing like one single shot but at least I had the tenacity and like the aggressiveness um in the fight so it's like I see that as a as a part win you know it's okay um the very first time that I came to Thailand I actually just came to visit um my ex-boyfriend and I came for just like two weeks and he he actually showed me how Amazing Thailand is and then from then on it was the next time that I go to Thailand I'm going to I'm going to go and I'm going to train um so I went there with the intent of I the the first time I came was November 2022 and I came with the intention of staying for about 3 months and um I picked bangt because my friend uh Sarah Kaufman back at home my training partner friend coach she um recommended this place cuz she got a recommendation from uh from Loma um and so yeah and then I just saw all on the I saw on Instagram that there were a bunch of women training here so I thought we better to train than bangt and so I came here and I just didn't really I didn't really want to go anywhere else I like to I like I firmly believe I'm one of those people that will like go to the same restaurant like almost every day just so that I can have a good relationship with the people you know even if the food isn't even that great you know if the people are awesome and um it's well it's not the same here because I get great training and I have good people but it's like why why go somewhere else when I know that here works you know the wrestling the the MMA the Muay Thai everything's here and the training Partners so it just it didn't seem necessary for me to check anywhere else um yeah I find that always when you're entering a new gym as a woman um I feel like people don't really know especially men it's it's it's a male-dominated place right um and so the men usually don't really know how they're supposed to train with you at least a lot of them do um I would say at certain levels obviously if they've been you know in martial arts for forever then um they know how to train with women but a lot of the time men don't or they just will avoid women at all costs so I feel like I've had this happen to me at every gym in the beginning is where you know it's like okay everyone partner up and then I'm standing there trying to make eye contact with with anyone like anyone around my size you know and the men will just divert their eyes cuz they just they'd rather just go with the guy right it's easier for them and I understand that but it's like I could actually be like a legitimate partner potentially a better partner than whoever you've whatever dude you've decided to pick you know um so that can can sometimes be an issue and it always kind of stressed me out I was like am I going to be able to get a partner today or am I am I going to deal with someone some dude who like had to partner up with me but he didn't really want to um and then you know at bangau it's like I don't really have that issue I mean I have the and I do train with with guys here cuz there are some some uh some guys that have been training here for a while and I feel comfortable with them but there's so many women so it's like I'm never out of a partner which is really great here an issue with being a woman as well in the sport is the lack of fights um I find that you're either I noticed this as well back at home in Jiu-Jitsu training you're either fighting the same girls you know because there's always those girls in your weight class um or you're fighting no one at all so it is always more difficult to find fights so that's an issue as well you know you think you get hit on a lot and I don't know if maybe I'm just ugly or they're just scared but it doesn't it doesn't really happen that often unless you're like flaunting your [ __ ] and stuff you're walking around like you like you could [ __ ] hurt them then most of the time they're not going to come up to you in that way but they will avoid you that's the thing it's like they're either going to be weird and creepy or they're going to avoid you and then there's like that small group of guys that like are actually um I don't know secure not not insecure about themselves and they can train with women but yeah my short-term goals at least two or three fights this year um in terms of like a long-term goal I just I want to be successful absolutely I want to go pro um but the main thing for me is just to be able to um comfortably live this life comfor comfortably live the fighter life where I can come in I can train I love training it's like my favorite thing ever so if I can just come in train nap during the day fight every once in a while earn my money that way that is the dream 100% I want to thank my mom who is my best friend who even though she does fully support me all the time I know that she always cares about me always loves me and is always there for me um and I than my brother my dad and all my family members who just like love seeing me grow and develop and and do all this crazy fun cool [ __ ] be the sassy you know 7-year-old that I used to be um and who else Sarah Kaufman you've been my my inspiration and my friend and I'm thank you so much for introducing bangt to me thank you so much for introducing just like I don't know training as a woman to me I think that's awesome you're awesome